Clothes hanger



June .10, 1969 M. c. STEBBINS 3,448,902

CLOTHES HANGER Filed Oct. 5, 1967 INVENTOR. MARK C.. STEBBI NS BY 76 M M M ATTORNEYS United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Anti friction roller on hook portion of clothes hanger is made of flexible plastic strip with beading and recessing at its opposite edges which interengage in a. snapover manner so that the roller can be formed around the hook a fter roller-retaining shoulders have been provided thereon.

This invention relates, in general, to a clothes hanger assembly.

The conventional clothes hanger has a hook which is engageable around a rod or the like for supporting clothes in a closet. When the hanger supports heavy clothing, such as overcoats, or when the rod is relatively crowded with clothes-supporting hangers, it is notoriously difiicult to slide the clothes hangers along the rod to gain access to a praticular garment or to make room for an additional garment-supporting hanger.

Heretofore, some clothes hangers have been provided with anti-friction rollers on their hoo ks; but these clothes hangers have not found general acceptance, primarily because they are slightly more costly to manufacture than the conventional hangers.

The typical hanger is made of soft steel wire and is made in quantity at a cost of a fraction of a cent each. This type of hanger is usually furnished to customers as a gratutious item by retail clothing stores, cleaning establishments, and the like. As a consequence, the hanger cost must be kept to an absolute minimum, and this requirement has heretofore made it economically unfeasible to provide an anti-friction roller on the clothes hanger hook. In the first place, the roller itself has been significantly costly and in the second place, assembly of the roller to the hook required prohibitively costly steps during the course of manufacture.

The object of this invention is to provide a simple, improved clothes hanger and roller assembly so inexpensive that the additional cost of providing the roller will be insignificant in view of the advantages gained in use.

In general, the invention contemplates providing the clothes hanger hook with a straight bearing portion flanked by shoulders during formation of the hook. A strip of flexible material such as plastic is provided which has a length such that when it is fashioned to tubular form, it defines an opening larger than the bearing portion but smaller than the flanking shoulders. The strip can be applied to the hook at any time after the hook itself has been. completely formed. The strip edges have heading and recessing intereng-ageable to secure the strip as a roller around the bearing portion of the hook. One form of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a clothes hanger assembly embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view on an enlarged scale showing the hook with the roller applied, parts being shown in section and in phantom to illustrate structural details 'and function.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 3--3 of BIG. 1.

3,448,902 Patented June 10, 1969 FIG. 4 is a side elevational of a strip [from which the roller is formed.

FIG. 5 is an end elevation of the strip shown in FIG. 4.

Shown in the drawings is a clothes hanger 10' of the type fashioned from soft steel wire. The hanger comprises a loop 12 which defines sloping horizontal portions 14 for supporting the shoulders of a garment and a bottom 16 on which such items as trousers or skirts are frequently hung. The loop is closed by twisting the wire upon itself as at 18, and a free end of the wire projecting upwardly therefrom is fashioned into a hook 20 adapted to be supportingly engaged around a rod R or R.

According to the invention, hook 20 is provided with a straight portion 22 at the upper region where the conventional hook would engage the supporting rod. Flanking the straight bearing portion are two shoulders 24 shown as being provided by offsetting the wire of the hook adjacent the ends of bearing portion 22. These shoulders could also be provided by upsetting the wire or any other convenient and inexpensive method.

An anti-friction roller 26 is mounted around bearing portion 22 and a contained axially between shoulders 24. Roller 26 is initially in the form of a fiatstrip 28 of a flexible material such as a plastic, a suitable example of which is nylon. Strip 28 has Ia bead 30 which extends along one edge and has a recess 32 which extends along its opposite edge.

Strip 28 has a length between its edges 30, 32 such that when it is fashioned laterally to tubular form, it defines an internal opening 34 which has a diameter larger than that of bearing portion 22 but smaller than the cross dimension of the hook at shoulders 24. Bead 30 and recess 32 are complementally contoured and dimensioned so that the head can be pressed into the recess with a snap-over interengagement. By this means, strip 28 can be fashioned and secured around bearing portion 22 to define roller 26.

During the course of manufacture, the manufacturer of wire hanger 10 per se needs only to provide straight bearing portion 22 land flanking shoulders 24. Only very simple 'dies are required for this purpose; and once they have been provided, any additional cost in the manufacture of the wire element itself is negligible. Strips 28 can be made in long lengths by a conventional extrusion process and severed by conventional shearing equipment to the length of roller 26. Strips 28 are thus very inexpensive.

The step of assembling roller 26 to hook 20 need not be done by the manufacturer of the Wire hanger element. To the contrary, this assembly can be accomplished at the time that an individual clothes hanger is put in use at a clothing store, cleaning establishment, or the like or by the ultimate user of the hanger at his home. The snapover engagement of head 30 and recess 32 facilitatev simple convenient removal and replacement of roller 26 if desirable or necessary.

In use, roller 26 provides for anti-friction movement of hanger 10 along rod R, thereby making it relatively easy and convenient to move a heavily burdened hanger or a group of hangers along the rod. The abutting shoulders adjacent interengaged bead 30 and recess 32 provide a relatively smooth seam, both internally and externally of the roller. Thus, any tendency of the seam area to obstruct free rolling movement of the roller upon contact with hearing portion 22 or rod R is minimized or eliminated.

It is believed preferable to provide well-defined shoulders 24 for containing roller 26 in position for engagement with rod R. However, if the curvature of the portions of hook 20 adjacent bearing portion 22 should be sharp enough, these portions would serve in place of shoulders 24. Also, bearing portion 22 need not necessarily be straight as shown but could curve somewhat and the curvature of the bearing portion could blend into the sharper curvature of the adjacent portions. The critical requirement with respect to these alternate structures is that the contour of the hook in the region of the roller and adjacent thereto be such as to avoid binding of the roller.

I claim:

*1. A clothes hanger assembly comprising,

a hanger having clothes-supporting portions and a hook portion, said hook portion having an upper bearing portion, said hook portion being provided with means defining shoulders which flank said bearing portion, said bearing portion being positioned to be apposed to a rod or the like on which said hook portion is adapted to be supported, a strip of flexible material such as a plastic fashioned laterally to tubular form around said bearing portion,

said strip having such a length that said tubular form defines an opening larger in diameter than that of said bearing portion but smaller than the cross dimension of said hook portion at said shoulders,

said strip having edge portions provided with interengaged means which secure said strip in said tubular form,

said strip forming an anti-friction roller contained between said shoulders and thereby being positioned for rolling engagement against a rod or the like on which said hook is adapted to be supported.

2. The assembly defined in claim 1 wherein said interengaged means comprises recessing formed in one of said edge portions and generally complementary beading formed on the other edge portion.

3. The assembly defined in claim 2 wherein said recessing and beading are dimensioned and contoured for snap-over interengagement and disengagement.

4. The assembly defined in claim 1 wherein said bearing portion is substantially straight and is disposed generally centrally within said hook portion, said shoulders comprising lateral offsets between said bearing portion and adjacent portions of said hook portion.

5. The assembly defined in claim 1 wherein said bearing portion is substantially straight and is disposed generally centrally within said hook portion, said shoulders comprising lateral offsets between said bearing portion and adjacent portions of said hook portion,

said interengageable means comprising recessing formed in one of said edge portions and generally complementary beading formed on the other of said edge portions,

said recessing and beading having substantially uniform sectional contour throughout their lengths and extending through the length of said edge portion, said recessing and heading being dimensioned and contoured for snap-over interengagement and disengagement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,299,390 4/ 1919 Swanson 223- 2,549,730 4/ 1951 Wassarman 22385 2,864,147 12/1958 Solow 24-2305 3,057,044 10/1962 Davis 29132 XR 3,217,690 11/ 1965 Mihalisin.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

G. H. KRIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 29'129.5 

